NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt Responds To State Of The State

Doug Steinhardt

NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt went live on Facebook to give his response to Governor Murphy's State Of The State address. Following is a transcript provided by NJGOP:

For everyone who just joined, I'm Doug Steinhardt, Chairman of the New Jersey Republican State Committee.

New Jersey is headed in the wrong direction. Businesses and jobs are leaving our State at alarming rates, because the Governor’s ultra-liberal policies make New Jersey the most inhospitable state in the country in which to live and work. 

Murphy promised a stronger and fairer New Jersey, but his policies make us weaker and poorer. What’s worse, his Democratic colleagues in the legislature tell us that they recognize our problems, but vote, year in and year out, to avoid the state’s toughest problems, like pensions and healthcare, and pile onto our already oppressive tax burden.  There’s little trust left in Trenton, and for good reason.

Just this year we saw two longtime New Jersey based employers move their corporate headquarters out of state when Gerber and Honeywell began moving to Virginia North Carolina. 

Governor Murphy's corporate and other tax hikes are a repellant to job creators and businesses. The constant threat of state tax increases disrupts the ability for businesses, large or small, to have predictability and stability in their long-term planning. 

It's no surprise that just a few weeks after New Jersey Democrats voted for over a billion dollars in tax hikes, Amazon made its final decision to take New Jersey out of the running and put its HQ2 in New York and Virginia.

But tax hikes alone aren't the only threat to job growth and New Jersey’s economic viability.  Every day, New Jersey Democrats inch closer and closer to writing into state law government mandated wages. 

Common sense tells us all that a government mandated, $15 minimum wage will force small businesses to lay off the least-skilled and most vulnerable workers and replace them permanently with technology like touch screen kiosks. These same, government mandated costs are then passed on to consumers in the form of higher costs for goods and services, making it even less affordable to live, work and retire in New Jersey.  It’s a vicious cycle that Democrats are unable or unwilling to break.

The results of these policies hit us hard in our wallets, but the consequences are even greater. Jobs are leaving NJ and our family members are leaving with them. Not only does NJ rank worst in business climate and highest in property taxes, we are now number one in out-migration too. 

New Jersey's communities were once made up of multiple generations of families living in the same neighborhoods, having Sunday dinners and growing up together. Today, our kids can't afford to get their start here and our grandparents can't afford to retire here.  I will not be one of those parents or grandparents who is forced to visit his children or grandchildren on Skype or Facetime because they can’t afford to live here, work here or find a job here.  I know we can do better, we have to do better, and our Republican leaders are committed to doing just that.

Agenda item number one must be to make New Jersey competitive and affordable. While that was the theme we needed to hear today, we didn’t. Pie in the sky won’t put food on your table or a roof over your head.  Discipline and better government will.

The first step is to take tax increases off the table. Trenton needs to live within its means, just like every responsible family household would. We need a commitment from Governor Murphy to roll back his liberal agenda and put things like "free college" on the back-burner.  We need a commitment from our single party government to leave our families and children with opportunities and not just debt.  

We will be using 2019 to remind New Jersey voters that there is an alternative to single party rule in this State, one that values the traditions of family, life, religious liberty, diversity and hard work.

Thank you to everyone who listened and supports us. We're not giving up and we'll keep working to turn New Jersey around. 

I'm Doug Steinhardt the Chairman of the New Jersey Republican State Committee.

Murphy’s State Of The State Address Was Just A Campaign Speech

Phil Murphy

I watched (and listened) to Governor Phil Murphy’s first State of the State address and I didn’t like it. I suspect no Republicans liked it and a lot of Democrats did, so no surprise there.

Murphy opened up talking about tax incentive programs, basically he blamed the previous administration for the problems. Frankly, after a year in office blaming the last guy is getting old.

To me, Murphy’s State of the State address was a campaign speech. It was all stuff we’ve heard before. I heard “stronger and fairer” about as many times as I heard it during his campaign for governor.

I’m not sure where the Governor lives, but New Jersey doesn’t appear to be stronger than it was a year ago. As to being fairer, I suppose that depends on your point of view. Personally, I don’t think higher taxes are fairer to anyone.

Of course, Murphy had to bring up one of his favorite topics – a $15 an hour minimum wage. I still find it odd that Murphy talks about a $15 per hour minimum wage when he once wanted a professional, with a master’s degree, to work for free, as an unpaid intern for his soccer team. Eventually the NWSL got Murphy’s team to pay the guy $15,000 for a season that lasts 6 months, but that is less than the $15,600 a $15 per hour employee would have made. In other words, Murphy is a giant hypocrite when it comes to $15 per hour.

Because I do believe in being fair, I have to admit I did like the fact that Murphy said he wants to “enact true early, in-person voting.” True early, in person voting is much better than mail-in voting. I liked it when I lived in New Mexico. It’s a lot harder to cheat with in-person voting than with mail-in ballots.

Murphy was clear that he wants to legalize pot saying, “So, let’s start 2019 by finishing what we began in 2018 -- putting the minimum wage on a clear and responsible path to $15 an hour, and legalizing adult-use marijuana. We must remember that when we talk about policy we are talking about people, not politics.”

Frankly, smoking some pot would have made the address much easier to listen to.

Menendez Just Spent More Time In Puerto Rico Than He Has In South Jersey

Bob Menendez

By now most of you have probably seen the photo of a shirtless U.S. Senator Bob Menendez talking to a bikini clad woman in Puerto Rico. I’ve decided against posting the photo because I have no desire to look at his topless photo again.

There are two things that have me mad about this junket. First, Menendez in just one weekend has spent more time in Puerto Rico than he did in South Jersey during his entire re-election campaign. Second, is that, at least according to his Twitter feed, Menendez is trying to make it appear he is there working on Hurricane Maria relief. Perhaps he forgot there are still folks in South Jersey who still haven’t fully recovered from Superstorm Sandy.

The fact that Menendez complains about “his wall” in the above Tweet really makes me angry. I’m sick and tired of people complaining about the wall who have no idea what they are talking about. I have friends who live and work along the border, places with very little security. I know one woman living in southeastern Arizona who leaves jugs of water on her property for illegal border crossers, not because she wants to, but because she fears what might happen to her if she doesn’t.

Has Menendez ever talked to her? No! Has he talked to any of the members of law enforcement I know who work along the border? Nope! Has he talked to any of the ranchers I know who make their living along the border? Again, no.

These are people who have had negative experiences with illegal border crossers. Talking to them doesn’t fit the narrative he and other Democrats are pushing. The truth is not every person illegally crossing the border is doing it for “good” reasons. Obviously, Menendez doesn’t want to take the time to lear about all the bad reasons people cross the border illegally.

For Menendez to try and make it appear that he is in Puerto Rico for any reason other than fun is a joke. This is a junket that was scheduled long before the partial government shutdown. He went there with at least 100 lobbyists and corporate executives and some members of Congress have family members with them.

Menendez may be a U.S. senator from New Jersey, but it is obvious he still doesn’t know where South Jersey is.